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Category Archives: books

My not-so-secret pug obsession is running into ovHERdrive. I bought German literature: Nicht ohne meinen Mops, you guessed it: Not Without My Pug. Es ist ein “WG-Roman”; all about the Turbulenzen of sharing a flat. The pug in the book is called “Earl of Cockwood”, and of course belongs to a faggy fag. Coincidence?

Tanja found her dream apartment in downtown Stuttgart. Too bad she can’t afford it by herself and so she’s hosting a casting for flat mates. Tanja decides on Chris, a florist who works at a call centre and Rolf, a mailman who moves in with his pug “Earl of Cockwood”. Tanja is head over heels for these guys. Of course she is the last to know that Chris and Rolf are becoming a couple.

Thanks Zesty.

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I just finished Tina Fey’s fun memoir, anecdote collection Bossypants. If you’re watching 30 Rock, you’re definitly going to be reminded of Liz Lemon in some parts. One of the best chapters is “Amazing, Gorgeous, Not Like That” in which Tina goes on about photo shoots for magazines and Photoshop:

“Do I think Photoshop is being used excessively? Yes. I saw Madonna’s Louis Vuitton ad and honestly, at first glance, I thought it was Gwen Stefani’s baby.
Do I worry about overly retouched photos giving women unrealistic expectations and body image issues? I do. I think that we will soon see a rise in anorexia in women over seventy. Because only people over seventy are fooled by Photoshop.”
(…)
“Why can’t we accept the human form as it is?” screams no one. I don’t know why, but we never have. That’s why people wore corsets and neck stretchers and powdered wigs.
If you’re going to expend energy being mad about Photoshop, you’ll also have to be mad about earrings. No one’s ears are that sparkly! They shouldn’t have to be!

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The Rei Kawakubo chapter is one of the best in John Waters’ book Role Models (published in May). These few black and white pages have caused considerable damage over hurrr. I mean, not that I didn’t crave Comme des Garçons before, but now, the flood gates of hell (aka my purse) are wide open. I simply can not resist a CdG item any more (just spare me the CdG Play line).

Ok, here is one of the crucial paragraphs. And what I believe is also very important: You can never start too early. Gobble up some torn & combusted CdG BEFORE you hit the big 4-ohhh:

You don’t need fashion designers when you are young (…). But past the age of 40, you need all the help you can get. Now is the time for designers, and believe me, Rei Kawakubo has made it possible for older people to be as fashion daring as the young. “Too rich, too nuts?” Yesiree, these are Rei’s customers, and we are proud to be her cult members on “Planet Rei”. Rei Kawakubo was “the first to make polyester cost more than silk,” the model Linda Evangelista told me when I met her at a film festival in France. Rei is not a fashion designer; she is a magician.

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When Toffi and I stayed at the Mirage in Las Vegas, we were of course a little sad that we couldn’t experience the magic that is Siegfried & Roy. Guess we came a couple of years too late.

Anyways, we had a great time visiting the Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy with all the wild animals. In the little shopette by the zoo I found the book “The Magic Begins At Home” by S&R. The style is a good companion to the Michael Jackson auction catalogue.

“(above right) Divine terrorizing the Trockadero Dance Club, October 29, 1978. He had just thrown an entire cake into the audience, nailing many, and was on his way to the other side of the stage to tear down the Trock”™s other white and silver faux palm trees. I guess he didn”™t like the decor. This was just after his starring role in John Water”™s, Female Trouble.”

Castro Street cruising, August, 1976

The recently released “œMilk: A Harvey Milk Pictorial Biography“, foreword by Armistead Maupin, introduction by Lance Black, the screenwriter of the film “œMILK”. It features many photographs by Dan Nicoletta.

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The Disco Files 1973-78 is a new book by Vince Aletti and djhistory.com, to be released April 20 (pre-order here). It sounds very much like a new nerd bible, containing Vince’s weekly reports from New York”™s club scene, his magazine articles, 800 club and DJ charts and tons of record reviews.

Aletti was the first person to write about disco in an article published in Rolling Stone in 1973. He became a senior editor at The Village Voice, and is currently the photography critic for The New Yorker.

Did people at [Paradise] Garage regard the Studio 54 as the anti-Christ?
To an extent. I certainly did. It was not what we thought this was all about. David’s [Mancuso] idealism was very widespread in terms of the way people felt. I think disco was, to some extent, a movement and a lot of people felt very strongly. And a lot of people got very caught up in what they felt it should and shouldn’t be.

What was the reaction when Studio 54 took off?
It’s hard for me to say, besides what I already said. There’s a scene at the end of the Last Days Of Disco one of the characters has this very idealistic speech where he says disco was a whole movement. It was funny, but it was really true and people felt that. They felt disappointed that the idealistic quality of it was being trampled over, in favour of money and celebrity. As much as disco was glitzy and certainly loved celebrity culture when people came to clubs, there was never a sense of it being driven by that. It was much more driven by an underground idea of unity.

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I would like to share a quote from Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal, which I am currently reading. It uses one of my favourite holiday related words, which I had never heard before this December (thanks to El Bear Ho): Bauble.

“I preferred to be Greer Garson, a gracious lady whose compassionate breasts were more suited to be last pillow for a dying youth than the baubles for the coarse hands of some horny boy.”

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In the newest issue of Place Space, designer Todd Oldham fotographs John Waters at home. The book comes wrapped in a custom designed poster as well as tear out postcards featuring books from Water”™s shelves such as “œSex on Horseback” and “œGay John”. Also included are essays by Todd Oldham and Cindy Sherman.

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When I attended a couple of Prince concerts last year, I was hoping for a live album. Especially of the aftershows that took place at a smaller venue at the O2 Arena in London. And in October, a little bit over a year later, this is what’s happening.

Prince and photographer Randee St. Nicolas are releasing 21 Nights, a book of photographs spanning his London residency, including poetry, lyrics and “Indigo Night,” a CD–available only with the book–capturing Prince’s live after-show sessions.

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Below are a few quotes from the book Candy Darling by Candy Darling, published 1992 through Hanuman. During the course of a day Candy committed her thoughts to a soft-covered notebook writing about things such as recipes, drafts of letters, makeup tips, addresses, etc. Then, there are pages of speculation; words meant to be used as a rebuke or compliment, dialogue to be stored away for future use – perhaps for a play she was writing, jokes:

All I could concentrate on for the rest of the morning was the grunting and groaning and the sounds ofthe bed creaking. Gil left around 9 a.m. I was still too stunned to sleep, being persecuted to capacity. As Mr. Right was going out of the door he saw that I was not asleep and said goodbye. His face seemed to be saying to me it’s really you I love mentally it was all you. But then I am not mentally well.

I know it hasn’t all been beer & pretzels for you either.

I see the day coming when the words femme and butch will be more commonly used. I mean to be used for heterosexuals not just for gay or bisexuals. Think of the intersting types.
Female-Heterosexual-type- Basic butch with femme overtones. the drag type
Raq. W. / J. Craw. / Jane Russell
Basic femme – Butch overtones Greta Garbo
Basic femme – femme overtones M.M. L.T.

When a woman wears the same dress twice
Then she doesn’t feel chic.
And when she doesn’t feel chic
She feels insecure
Then she can’t sleep at
night then she suffers from
nervous exhaustion then
that could lead to a
nervous breakdown.

The only law she never broke is the law of gravity.

The only security is health and the ability to adjust in life.

Dear Kathy
First of all please forgive me for not answering sooner. I’ve been so involved with my own identity, which has been so vague, and social commitments, basic living procedures and affairs of the heart that for a while I ceased to exist. Except for other people. (…)

At first, I was a bit disappointed because it is not very kiss-and-tell but then Courtney’s story drew me in: angry, eager, tragic, sad and on the other hand, for short periods, very sparkling. Like an emotional roller coaster ride.

Anyway, here is one of my favourite parts, an e-mail exchange between Courtney and Lindsay Lohan. I think I could get celebrity email addicted.

Click to enlarge.

(VF = Vanity Fair. A 1992 article in Vanity Fair entitled “Strange Love”, in which it was alleged that Courtney had continued using heroin in the early stages of pregnancy. As a result, Child Welfare Services briefly investigated the Cobains’ fitness as parents, removing Frances Bean from their custody for a short period. Love claims to this day that she was misquoted, saying she had told author Lynn Hirschberg that she had stopped using it once she learned she was pregnant. (source))

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I’ve been to my local bookstore today to buy a Japanese phrasebook. Out of curiosity I browsed through the German phrasebook. Now, this book makes it easy for drag queens to visit Germany and introduce themselves properly.

Fantastic. Out of control! Drag queens are the top profession. I just knew it.

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Sabs and Bits gave me this wonderful book (I just know it is and mine has a cuter cover) as a present last week. The pictures in the book look so promising…
And now I want the shirt Martha is sporting, Dancin’ Wheels.

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I’ve read Andy Warhol’s philosophy before but when I saw this 1976 paperback edition I had to buy it again. The cover is awesome.You can get a lot out of the book, for instance:

When you want to be like something, it means you really love it. When you want to be like a rock, you really love that rock. I love plastic idols.

An actress friend of mine told me that after she didn’t want money any more and after she didn’t want jewels any more, that’s when she got money and jewels. I guess it’s for our own good that it always happens that way, because after you stop wanting things is when having them won’t make you go crazy. After you stop wanting them is when you can handle having them. Or before. But never during.

I hate PENNIES. I wish they’d stop making them altogether. I would never save them. I don’t have the time. I like to say in stores, ‘Oh forget it, keep those pennies. It makes my French wallet to heavy.’